How to Fill Out and Submit DD Form 1692: Engineering Change Proposal

To fill out DD Form 1692, download the January 2018 edition from the Executive Services Directorate, complete the primary page with the identifiers that tie your proposal to a specific contract and configuration item, add the supplemental pages your Contract Data Requirements List calls for, apply the correct distribution statement, and route the signed package to the contracting officer named in your contract. The form is the Department of Defense’s standardized Engineering Change Proposal (ECP), used to propose, evaluate, and approve changes to military hardware, software, and technical documentation.

Download the Current Form

DD Form 1692 and its seven supplemental pages (1692/1 through 1692/7) are available as fillable PDFs from the DoD Forms Management Program page on the Executive Services Directorate website.¹ Some contracts let you submit through the acquirer’s Integrated Digital Environment or in the contractor’s own format, provided the content matches what DD Form 1692 captures.² Check your CDRL on DD Form 1423 to see which format your program office expects before you start.

Confirm You Need a Class I ECP

Not every modification requires this form. DD Form 1692 is used for Class I (Major) changes: modifications significant enough to affect an approved acquisition baseline, contract cost, delivery schedule, or item performance. Class I triggers include changes to safety or reliability requirements, compatibility with interfacing products, interchangeability of replacement parts, electromagnetic characteristics, weight or balance, maintainability, operator training, logistics support, or life-cycle costs.³ A change that doesn’t hit any technical threshold but still affects price, delivery, warranties, or contracted milestones is also Class I.

Class II (Minor) changes are everything else: administrative corrections, documentation clarifications, and fixes that don’t touch an approved baseline or contract term.³ They still need documentation but skip the full review cycle. If you’re uncertain, mark it Class I. Downgrading after review is easier than discovering mid-production that a change needed approval you never sought.

Complete the Primary Page

The front page routes the proposal and links it to the correct contract and configuration item. Fill in each identifier carefully:

ECP number: a unique identifier following whatever numbering scheme your contract or company configuration management plan specifies. This number tracks the proposal through every stage of review.
Date: the date the ECP is prepared and submitted.
CAGE code: your Commercial and Government Entity code, which ties the proposal to your company’s identity in the federal system.⁴
System or configuration item designation: the specific military program, weapon system, or piece of equipment the change affects. Use the official nomenclature; don’t paraphrase.
Contract number: the contract under which the item was procured or is being developed.
ECP class: Class I (Major) or Class II (Minor), based on the criteria above. The form references the definitions from EIA-649-1.³
Priority: emergency, urgent, or routine. Emergency and urgent priorities require immediate notification to the government by electronic message before the formal package is even assembled.

Description and Justification

The description of the proposed change should be a concise technical summary: what’s being modified, from what baseline, and to what new configuration. Avoid vague language like “improve reliability.” State the specific parameter you’re changing. For example: “Replace aluminum alloy bracket Part No. X with titanium alloy bracket Part No. Y to increase fatigue life from 5,000 to 12,000 cycles.”

The justification field explains why the change is necessary. A design deficiency uncovered in testing, a safety concern from field use, a cost reduction opportunity, or a directed government requirement all count. Back up the justification with test data, failure reports, or engineering analysis whenever possible. Reviewers who can’t see the underlying data will send the package back and ask for it.

Complete the Supplemental Pages Your CDRL Requires

Most Class I ECPs need more detail than the front page holds. Seven supplemental pages accompany DD Form 1692, each addressing a different impact area. Your CDRL specifies which apply:

Page 1 (DD 1692/1): detailed instructions and continuation space for the engineering change description. Expand the technical narrative from the front page here.
Page 2 (DD 1692/2): financial impact. Break out recurring costs, non-recurring costs, labor hours, and material expenses. Include the effect on unit price, total contract value, and any retrofit costs for equipment already fielded. Reconcile these numbers with your contracts and pricing team before submission; cost figures that don’t match your accounting system get flagged immediately.
Pages 3 through 6 (DD 1692/3 through 1692/6): logistics support impacts, including effects on maintenance manuals, spare parts provisioning, training requirements, test equipment, and technical data packages. Pay particular attention to interchangeability. If the changed part can’t be swapped one-for-one with the original, field technicians need to know, and this is where you document it.
Page 7 (DD 1692/7): additional information, which may include software-specific data or other specialized impact areas depending on the program.⁵

Disposal of obsolete inventory is easy to overlook. If the change affects parts already in the supply chain, account for the cost and logistics of pulling old stock, installing retrofit kits, and updating automated test equipment. Leaving these items out doesn’t save money. It just creates a supplementary ECP later when someone notices the gap.

Apply the Correct Distribution Statement

Engineering change proposals often contain sensitive technical data, and the wrong marking can delay processing or create a security incident. Every ECP package carries one of six standard DoD distribution statements:

Statement A: approved for public release, distribution unlimited. Only for unclassified information with no export controls.⁶
Statement B: limited to U.S. Government agencies only, for reasons such as critical technology or export control.
Statement C: U.S. Government agencies and their contractors.
Statement D: Department of Defense and U.S. DoD contractors only.
Statement E: DoD components only, restricted to military and civilian DoD employees.
Statement F: further distribution only as directed by the controlling DoD office.

Most ECPs for active weapon systems fall under Statement D or lower. If your proposal contains export-controlled data, proprietary information, or vulnerability details, the marking must reflect that. Your program’s security classification guide and the contracting officer determine the correct statement. Getting this wrong is one of the fastest ways to have a submission returned before anyone reads the engineering content.

Submit the Package

The completed DD Form 1692, all required supplemental pages, and supporting attachments (drawings, test reports, cost proposals) go to either the Administrative Contracting Officer or the Procuring Contracting Officer, depending on your contract’s terms. Your CDRL specifies the recipient and the distribution list.⁷ Many programs now accept electronic submission through integrated digital environments that time-stamp every version and provide an audit trail.

For emergency or urgent ECPs, notify the government immediately by email or fax as soon as you determine the need. A formal package should follow within 30 days. If assembling the full package inside that window isn’t practical, a preliminary ECP can serve as an interim measure until the formal submission is ready.⁷ A preliminary ECP is not authorization to start implementing the change. Unofficial or preliminary documents cannot be used as authority to incorporate modifications.⁸

What Happens After You Submit

The ECP goes to a Configuration Control Board, a group of technical and administrative specialists who evaluate the proposal against program goals, funding, and schedule. Most programs pre-screen the package through an Engineering Review Board or equivalent technical review first. The CCB then weighs technical, operational, support, schedule, and cost impacts and issues a decision: approve, disapprove, or defer, documented in a Configuration Control Board Directive.⁹⁷

Timelines vary. A straightforward change with clean documentation might clear the board in a few weeks. Complex proposals touching multiple subsystems, interfaces, or programs can take 90 days or longer, especially if the board requests additional technical justification or cost data. Monitor status through the channels specified in your contract and respond promptly to requests for supplementary information; a slow response is one of the most common reasons an ECP stalls. Once approved, the contracting officer issues a contract modification that incorporates the change into the production baseline and updates the statement of work.

Mistakes That Get Packages Returned

The fastest way to slow down your ECP is to submit an incomplete package. These issues most often cause returns or delays:

Incomplete cost data. Vague estimates or missing recurring versus non-recurring breakdowns force the board to send the package back before substantive review begins.
Missing signatures. The contracting officer or configuration change authority signature blocks must be complete. An unsigned form gets returned regardless of how good the engineering is.
Wrong or missing classification. Failing to mark the ECP as Class I or Class II, or marking it incorrectly, creates confusion about which review path applies.
Vague justification. “Improve performance” is not a justification. Cite specific test data, failure reports, or operational deficiency reports that demonstrate why the change is necessary.
Incomplete logistics impact. Skipping the supplemental pages that address spare parts, training, and technical manual updates makes it impossible for the board to assess full life-cycle impact.
Incorrect distribution markings. A missing or wrong statement can trigger a security review that sidelines the proposal entirely.

Treat the ECP package as a self-contained argument. The reviewers may not have the background context you do. Every claim in the proposal, whether cost savings, performance improvement, or schedule impact, should be backed by data that’s either attached or referenced by document number so the reviewer can pull it independently.

1
Department of Defense. DD 1692 – Engineering Change Proposal
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ASSIST QuickSearch. Data Item Description DI-SESS-80639D Engineering Change Proposal
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Defense Technical Information Center. Tailoring of EIA-649-1 – Definition of Major (Class I) Engineering Change Proposal
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Acquisition.GOV. 52.204-16 Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting
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Washington Headquarters Services. DD 1692/7 – Engineering Change Proposal (ECP), Page 7
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DoD CUI Program. Distribution Statements
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AcqNotes. MIL-HDBK-61A(SE) Configuration Management Guidance
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Warfighting Acquisition University. Engineering Change Proposals (ECP)
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Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. SMCI 62-109 Configuration Management